Apple Rumour: Apple to enter games console market

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There’s an interesting piece over at Pro-G quoting the Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora who believes that it’s “a distinct possibility’ that Apple will move into the games console market.

“We think the videogame market represents a distinct possibility for Apple, especially considering that it recently announced the availability of videogames for its iPod through its iTunes store. The game console device could be morphed out of some combination of the Mac Mini and iTV, while the handheld player could be developed as an enhancement for a future version of the widescreen iPod,” he said.

He thinks the reason that Apple would move into this area would be to protect its position in the home entertainment market – a position that is being threatened by Microsoft.

It’s an interesting theory though I’m not wholly convinced. Is there really room for Apple in a market dominated by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo? Who would produce the games? Shouldn’t they just stick to Macs, iPods and iTunes?

Hmm, I can see the set-top box idea, if you could play online Flash games. But Apple releasing games itself? If they were serious in that aim, they’d have released more iPod games since the first 9 went on sale all those months ago…

dirtboy

6th December 2006 at 7:21 pm

Maybe not a console per se, but a set top box capable of displaying movies and music from the ITMS and recording television and also capable of playing some games sounds reasonable.